Term Limits? Get Out And Vote

September 11, 1994|The Morning Call

Term limits are simply a lazy person's way of voting. With declining voter turnouts a national trend, it's not too hard to understand the public's fascination with them. Those frustrated with career politicians find it easier to enact laws that automatically turn officials out of office than to do so on Election Day.

Still, term limits are growing ever more popular. Voters in 15 states have approved varying types of term limitations for their congressional representatives. Those adopted by President Clinton's home state of Arkansas are being contested in the Supreme Court.

Last week, President Clinton stuck his neck out politically when Solicitor General Drew Days filed a motion with the Court asking permission to argue against term limits when the Arkansas case is heard this fall.

Article 1 of the Constitution sets out the three basic qualifications for members of Congress -- age, residency and citizenship. The Constitution stipulates nothing about a candidate's prior service or length of service. But that hasn't stopped grass-roots voter initiatives supported by the national group U.S. Term Limits from trying to take constitutional law into their own hands.

And they've probably gone too far. Solicitor General Days argued for the administration that Arkansas's term-limits amendment "poses a particular threat to the federal system in that it makes membership in the Congress dependent on regulation by the states." That's not the way our government was meant to work.

The proper way to impose term limits for members of Congress would be through a constitutional amendment similar to the 22nd that limits a president to two terms. But if voters elect enough members of Congress who will push through an amendment, they will have proven how unnecessary term limits are.

In the last congressional elections, voters sent 110 new House members and 14 new senators to Washington. That was the biggest congressional turnover since 1948. On an average, there were 50 new House members in each of the elections in the last 20 years. With the exception of some entrenched incumbents, it means that voters replaced most of the House members over that period. When you consider that most term limit proponents would cap careers at 12 or 16 years, you realize that term limits are really aimed at a very few politicians.

Term limits for Congress is a bogus issue. If citizens want a significant change in the way Congress operates they can insist, as President Clinton has, on campaign finance reform and lobbying restrictions -- and they can get out and vote. If they want to limit politicians' terms, they should take advantage of their opportunities. The next congressional election is in two months.